Within the last week, several members of my former youth group in Texas found me via Facebook. I still haven’t figured out how to navigate that rather formidable universe, but I am enjoying finding old friends. One of the things we shared in our years together were the songs my friend Billy Crockett and I wrote for youth camp each summer. One chorus didn’t require much work lyrically, on our part, but came together quite well:

God is for us who can be against usGod is for us we are not aloneGod is for us we are for each otherhallelujah he is for us

Some years later, Billy was thinking about recording the song (which he did on the CD Red Bird Blue Sky) and decided we needed to write verses. At the time, my father had a serious case of pneumonia and I was really worried about him. And the verses we wrote carried both that concern and the hope that carried us. When we finished, the whole song looked like this:

God is for us who can be against usGod is for us we are not aloneGod is for us we are for each otherHallelujah he is for us

for all the damage donestill won’t turn and runhearts have been brokendreams have been stolenbut nothing takes these words away

God is for us who can be against usGod is for us we are not aloneGod is for us we are for each otherHallelujah he is for us

the places that we goso many different roadsno present dangerno distant futurewill take us where we cannot know

God is for us who can be against usGod is for us we are not aloneGod is for us we are for each otherHallelujah he is for us

Tonight I talked to my mother as I walked to my car after work. She had had a hard day and sounded worn out. Her surgery is at nine o’clock tomorrow morning and is expected to take most of the day. Like so many years ago, I am concerned and feeling the distance between us. Tonight, pieces of my past came back together to remind me of what I know is true underneath the uncertainty.

Peace,Milton

P. S. — I tried, unsuccessfully, to figure out how to imbed an audio file so you could hear the song. If anyone knows how to do that on Blogger, please let me know.

I loved that song. I looked for The Basic Stuff on iTunes Store the other night, but couldn’t find it. I pulled out my Billy Crockett tape (cause I can’t find the cd) and let my girls listen to it. Boy do I miss hearing him in person. Brings back a lot of good memories for me. Thanks for sharing that.